


Bittersweet Symphony

by Iplaydead



Series: What a tangled web we weave [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 04:09:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11524257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iplaydead/pseuds/Iplaydead
Summary: Loki falls into the void and finds himself at the mercy of The Other.When he comes to the horrible realization that no one is coming to his rescue, he takes matters into his own hands.Loki is a survivor, and hewilldo what it takes to survive, seeing no end to his torment."He had discovered early on that Death was a brutal, coldhearted,bitch."





	Bittersweet Symphony

**Author's Note:**

> Prologue to Gods and Monsters. Can be read as stand alone.  
> Warning; descriptions of torture. 

At first, Loki thought the worst thing was falling into the void; the darkness. The place where his eyes could never fully adjust enough to see anything but the pitch black that surrounded him, a place where no light had ever thought to venture. The silence was probably the worst part of the entire ordeal. It was deafening. **Lonely.**  The void was nothing but pure and total emptiness. 

It was **The Nothing.**

That's what Loki liked to call it since it almost drove him to the brink of madness. He shouldn't have survived. He was **supposed** to die, but death never came and to this day he still isn't sure just **how long** he fell before he finally hit the bottom where he followed a small, white light that led him to where he was now. Had it been days? Weeks? Months? There was no real way to be sure. But that wasn't the worst thing. Not by a long shot.

 

Loki coughed, wincing from the pain it erupted from the aftershock, and recognizing the familiar metallic taste of blood as he pulled at his chains. **He had to escape.**  It was a futile attempted to break free seeing as the very being that put him here knew _exactly_ what it was doing when it chained him up, binding his Seidr in the process as well.  **There was no escape.** The cell was even worse. Well, depending on which cell it decided to throw him in that day; going by how _compliant_ he was during his _session_. However, no matter what state his cell was in it always smelled of death and decay. That was a smell he couldn't get used to. Even if he could, he would never be able to forget it. It was one of those smells that was now permanently embedded into his subconscious.

He could hear the other prisoners agonizing screams from his current location. _You will never scream_ , he told himself, and he truly believed he wouldn't. He would never give that beast the satisfaction of hearing him scream; of hearing him beg. Every day Loki would curse, fight, and spit in the monster's face until it had decided it had had enough and attempted to **correct** him into submission.  How long had he been here? The logical part of his brain screamed months while the illogical half screamed it had been  **years.**

At least, it felt like years. 

Loki knew pain; mentally, emotionally, and physically. Battle scars, both visible and not covered his body, but the pain he had to endure now blew anything else he had ever felt out of the water. The monster didn't even have to _touch_ him to inflict pain. Wiggling its way into Loki's mind and slicing what felt like daggers into his skull while he squeezed his eyes shut until his face was aching and stained with his own tears. He had tried everything to dull out the pain. Nothing ever worked.

 

_"You will learn; runt of Asgard, that I **own** you. You are my toy to do with as I wish until you agree to follow **HIM**. Submit to me, and I will go easy on your punishment today." _ _He remembered the creature telling him months, or perhaps years ago, during one of his sessions.  
_

_"You are nothing. **No one**. Insignificant. HE can show you a more meaningful existence. Give you purpose."_

_"Never." Loki spat, spitting blood out of his mouth and into the creature's face._

_"You have made a grave mistake, runt, one you will be paying for dearly." The creature snarled, wrapping his deformed fingers around Loki's throat and squeezed until he could no longer breathe. "There is no point in fighting me. You **will** submit and you will do it whether you are willing, or whether you are screaming and begging for mercy."_

 

Loki couldn't remember the last time that he had ate, or the last time he had been given water. He would not ask. He would not beg. He began to wonder how long he could go without either before he would perished. Dying of starvation or dehydration would have been a mercy for the God of Lies. He knew he wouldn't be given that mercy since every day he was tortured and beaten to the brink of death, only to be healed just enough to last another session, and then thrown into a cell with only a few hours of rest until it pulled him back out for more.

His surroundings reminded him of a cave, only caves were cooler. This place was hot, brutally and painfully so, yet it was still damp in most places. It was always dark; the light did not exist here. It almost reminded him of The Nothing, only it was a far worse Hel. Loki would fall into the void for an eternity if it meant he could escape this horrible, miserable nightmare. A nightmare he couldn't seem to wake up from, no matter how hard he tried. This was real. He couldn't have dreamt up such nightmares until he'd experienced and lived through them first hand. It plagued his thoughts and dreams, never fully getting a moment to rest or a break from the horrors he was forced to live through. This was his life now, and he had no idea how it had happened. Everything had happened so fast. Now he wished for nothing more than to go home. 

The beast had taken a short intermission while Loki, half held up by his chains and halfway lying broken on the floor, tried to keep himself awake. Unconsciousness would have been Valhalla at that very moment, but he knew better than to fall asleep. He slept when he was allowed to sleep. He learned that the hard way, still unsure if he had passed out from being sleep deprived, or if he had been driven to unconsciousness from the monster's brutal treatment. It had forced him to stay awake for, he guessed, weeks before it allowed him to rest again and to his horror it had only allowed him to sleep for a few hours before continuing its usual scheduled sessions.  He had yet to truly recover from the sleep deprivation.

Loki almost visibly winced when he heard footsteps approaching. He didn't have to look up to know who was there.

"Have you had time to think, runt? Have you had time to consider my terms, hmm?" The creature sneered, eyes hidden by the hood attached to its cloak. When Loki refused to answer or make eye contact, the monster gripped Loki's chin and forced him to meet his eyes. He could feel the extra thumb against his throat. He shuddered, hating nothing more (now and every time) than when that monster touched him; it was cold, rough, and gave Loki an overall unpleasant feeling altogether. 

"Are you thinking of them again, poor forgotten prince? Tisk, tisk. Such a shame that you seem to think that anyone would still care about you. Your own brother threw you into the abyss, and yet, you still believe they will come. That you will be saved."

Aside from Loki's left eye twitching slightly, he didn't break. He said nothing.

_It's all lies. Remember, he's trying to break you, manipulate you. BRAINWASH YOU._

"No one is coming for you, runt. Why do you keep fighting when you already know you've lost? I would suggest you pick your battles more intelligently, _young prince._ " The beast hissed while he tightened his grip and maneuvered his hand so that it was now partly wrapped around Loki's throat. "You are no one. Nothing. Just discarded trash. You will tell me Asgard's secrets, one way or another. You will betray them as they betrayed you. Soon you will see things my way."

The creature smiled a smile so wicked Loki couldn't stop the shiver that ripped threw his body. The look it was giving him made his stomach churn. "I think we will try something _new_ today, what do you say?" If Loki would have had anything to vomit up, he would have. It wasn't a question and he knew better than to answer. The feeling of fear and dread filled his stomach. What could be worse than what that thing had already been doing to him?

 **Fire**. He realized fire was worse, if not _the_ worse pain he'd ever felt. Loki had heard that being burned alive was basically indescribable, if not one of the most horrifying and painful ways to go, more so for him, considering he was half Jotun, but eventually **you die**.

But being forced to stay alive while being burned to death was a twenty out of ten on Loki's pain scale. It was too much. He could literally feel his nerve endings melting away along with skin, and he could smell his flesh burning as it sizzled under the hot blaze.  _Too much._ He wasn't close enough to touch the flames, but the monster also wanted him to live through this torture. He wouldn't die of smoke inhalation because his body wouldn't allow it, but he would be damned if he didn't try, even as hopeless and pointless as he knew it was. That thing knew what he really was, it knew his weakness.

**_Too much._ **

Loki screamed; he screamed until his lungs were raw and bleeding. 

 

"Have you had enough yet, no one?" 

The creature was pacing back in forth in front of Loki after another round of the eternal flame. It had appreciated how well the fallen prince had reacted to this particular punishment and had decided to use it often.

If not indefinitely. 

"Fuck. You." Loki spat to the best of his ability in-between breaths. 

"Little runt, have you not learned your lesson yet?" It shook its head in disapproval. "Then you wouldn't mind if I turned that pit up a notch." It laughed wickedly when the God of Lies finally broke, screaming pleas of mercy, to go with his screams of agony.

* * *

Curled up in the fetal position in the cleanest corner of the cell he could find, which was pretty pointless considering the entire cell was covered in dirt and things Loki would rather not think about that could be dwelling on the floor, he found himself unable to stop shaking; panicked, petrified, and absolutely _mortified_. He had allowed himself to be broken in the worst, and most cowardly of ways. He had shown weakness and now that _monster_ knew exactly how to get him to do what it wanted. Not only had Loki screamed, but he had begged for his family; his father, his mother, even  _Thor_. When that didn't work he begged for death. Anything to **stop** the pain. The creature had only sneered at him and continued his brutal treatment since the one thing it wanted to know Loki wouldn't give up. No matter what horrible things that monster did to him, he would never give up Asgard. 

It wouldn't be long before the monster had him, before he was nothing but a hollow shell; an empty vessel. _Broken._ Loki knew it, and he was ashamed. He should be stronger. He was the son of...

_No, you aren't a son of Odin. **Lies**. Not my father, he never was. You are now their enemy. They care nothing for you. _

_You are nothing. No one._

It was a rare moment when Loki honestly forgot the turmoil that had led him to where he was now. The beast was all too eager to remind him of all his faults and flaws. What had he done to deserve such punishment? Why wouldn't fate just **let him die.** Why wouldn't death take him. No one cared about him enough for it to matter. He had failed at everything; being a son, a King, even a Frost Giant, and now he had added his pitiful attempt at suicide to his list of failures. He couldn't even kill himself. He had been sure he would die in the void. He had been _so sure_.

He had discovered early on that Death was a brutal, coldhearted,  _bitch_.

When was enough, enough? He was done with his pathetic excuse of an existence long before he arrived...here. Did this place even have a name? He wondered. In the end, he guessed, it didn't matter. He was never getting out. Not without betraying those he cared for. But was it worth it? They didn't give a damn about him. Thor had tried to kill him.  _No, I attempted to take my own life, not Thor,_  he corrected, feeling the monster swimming around in his mind, his subconscious. He wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't anymore, couldn't decipher what was being planted in his head and what he knew to be true. That thing was determined to twist everything Loki knew, or thought he knew, into his own worst nightmares. 

No matter how hard he tried to sleep, sleep wouldn't welcome him, and just when Loki was starting to feel like himself again it was already back to retrieve him. 

 

"You know you can stop the pain anytime you wish." 

"I. Will not. Betray. Asgard." Loki could barely get the words out of his mouth. He wasn't entirely sure if he had or not to be honest.

"Why do you still care for those who care nothing for you? You have no home. No family. You have nothing. Thor tried to kill you, do you not remember?" The creature leaned in to whisper in Loki's ear. "Your family does not care for you; you're a monster. Who could ever love such a vile creature such as yourself? You are no one. Just a Jotun runt left to die in the cold; a reject. Nothing but one of Odin's artifacts; a relic and a worthless one at that." 

"I am. Loki. Of Asgard." He felt the pain surging through his skull the moment he said the words. He tried not to grind his teeth into powder. "I am Loki-"

" **YOU ARE NO ONE**!" It repeated in a snarl, cutting Loki's sentence off with a pained scream instead. The pain in his head grew sharper, feeling like it was embedding deeper into his mind while the creature continued to speak. "You are my slave, and you will obey me! Tell me their secrets! Tell me how to get into Asgard and how to penetrate that vault!" 

Loki refused to reveal Asgard's secrets, and he once again would pay the price for not doing so. He would not tell the creature how to break into Asgard, or the vault, and betray his family. He would find another way out of this; there had to be another way, something else this monster would want. 

"Such a pity. And here I thought you'd had enough of fire."

 

Even the strongest-willed people can break. There is only so much torment and torture a person, or in this case God, can take before they will do anything to get out of the situation. Especially when the sadistic creature knows exactly what to say and do in order to break you, and in the worst imaginable ways possible. By the time Loki had finally had enough and cracked, he was almost driven to the point of insanity from the brutal punishments of The Other. 

BUT, he still didn't give up Asgard or their vault. Instead, he gave the location of another power, the Tesseract, that he knew currently resided on the mortal realm.

"Where is this Tesseract you speak of?" The Other smiled, pleased that he had finally gotten the pitiful prince to comply. It wasn't Asgard's vault, but it would do. For now.

"Midgard. I know not where."

"Can you locate it?"

"With a little time, yes."

"Then do so, but you must find the Tesseract using the astral plane. You are not permitted to leave the Unknown under any circumstances. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I Understand."

"I would recommend it, runt. If you betray me, betray HIM, I will throw you into that fire pit and leave you there to suffer. You will not die, I will make sure of that."

 

Loki located the Tesseract after only a few hours of searching. The mortals had it, of course, but that didn't really matter to Loki. He would kill who he had to, do what he had to, in order to obtain it. 

After his "submission" Loki was still punished- just not as often or as harshly, and only when he had done something to _screw up_ in the eyes of The Other. That is if he didn't count the continued efforts of the creature's attempts at brainwashing him. Unbeknownst to Loki it had been effective; screwing with his mind just enough to set him off so that he began to believe The Other's tales and lies that had been drilled into his head for hours on end for months. Loki had been officially pulled from reality and the beast was very pleased with the progress with the fallen prince. He was almost ready.

Thinking optimistically his living arrangement _had_ improved and he'd even been given a **clean** cell with a bed and washroom. Free roam (of the Unknown) as well as food and water. It was progress, it was better. Even if Loki still felt like he was losing his mind due to the scorching heat that kept him ill the majority of the time. 

When the day came and he finally met with the Titan he realized he had made the right choice. This man, creature, was half-crazed and powerful. He had plans to acquire the infinity gauntlet and Loki was pretty positive he would get it, finding it was best to stay on the Mad Titan's good side, if he even really had one. Regardless, he was given new purpose; a burden he couldn't escape from.

Once it was certain Loki was on their side, he was given access to ancient knowledge from a powerful weapon known as the scepter, the same weapon he was to wield on his invasion on Midgard, and he was shown worlds that he never knew existed, or dreamed of, where he retrieved rare and powerful artifacts for The Other. He was released and let out of the Unknown alone, but he knew it was only a test to see if he could truly be trusted. He didn't dare run. **No.** He couldn't, not now. His best option was to do what the Titan, and that evil beast that had tortured him for the past several months, wanted him to do. If he ran and was caught... The punishment would have been unimaginable. He wasn't one to submit, and he wasn't in his own mind, since he wasn't truly on their side. Loki was a survivor. He was surviving.  He knew they had played on his weaknesses and he knew he was being manipulated, childish, and even foolish when he agreed to take over Midgard to rule, but he just couldn't help himself. He craved to have what he was born to have. It didn't use to matter, the throne, but now the thought of having that much power clouded his mind. At least, until he realized his poisonous thoughts were probably (definitely) the influence of his weapon since he would find himself waking up from the trance the scepter held over him, usually only halfway aware of how he got to be at his destination and his actions prior. He was still him, but it was like he was watching himself in first person, able to control his actions in some ways while completely powerless in others. But the weapon, the scepter, held power and a lot of it. Loki couldn't deny nor would he ever deny how much he enjoyed...craved, the way it felt in his hands. He had felt weak for so long there was a feeling of blissful euphoria having access to this much power in his possession again. To be himself again, well, most of the time. 

Now that he had been trusted with such a task, he would comply, but on his own terms of course. It wasn't as if he really had a choice anyway. It was better to comply. Loki would be better off even if he didn't succeed in his attack on Midgard. Once he was out of this place and on Earth, he had no intentions of _ever_ coming back to the Unknown, and decided he would die before he would ever return to this horrid place willingly. 

For now he would be their ally; he would survive this horrible twist of fate. He was Loki of Asgard and he would never again be no one. 

* * *

**-Several Months later-**

_"The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human world."  The Other informed its Master. "They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead. And our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his. The universe, yours. And the humans, what can they do but **burn?** "_

  
 ****************

  
_"The Chitauri grow restless." The Other spoke, after pulling Loki's astral presence back into the Unknown with the help of the scepter._

_"Let them gird themselves. I will lead them into glorious battle." Loki replied confidently, standing tall and proud. He sounded more confident than he felt. It was hard to forget he was speaking with the very creature that had tortured him for months. Once again._

_**"** Battle? Against the meager might of Earth?" _

_"Glorious, not lengthy. If your force is as formidable as you claim."_

_"You question us? You question HIM?" The Other challenged, sneering at the God. "He, who put the scepter in your hand, who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?"_

_"I was a king, the rightful king of Asgard!" Loki countered, seething with rage. He was the rightful King. He **should** be King. After all, it was Thor who tossed him into the abyss and taken his throne. "Betrayed!" _

_"Your ambition is_ _little, born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil."_

_"You don't have the Tesseract yet." The Other rushed Loki, holding out one threatening hand and daring the God to defy him. "I don't threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words."_

_"You will have your war, Asgardian." Loki stiffened as The Other circled him, appearing unphased by the fact that he had his back to the creature on the surface, while he silently screamed in his mind."If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no_ _realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can not find you."_

_"You think you know pain?" His words echoed through the Unknown and Loki felt The Other move, fighting with every muscle in his body to remain still. Remain calm, but Loki knew all too well what was coming next. If the monster could have seen his eyes flickering, it would have given him away."He will make you long for something as **sweet as pain."**_

 

Loki flinched as he was pulled back into his physical body with a familiar searing pain, and the horrible reminder of who was really in charge of this dynamic. 

**Author's Note:**

> I deleted the original second part of this series. (I've decided to re-work it.)  
> Sorry about that, lol.
> 
> Part three will continue with Loki and Lily where Part 1 left off.  
> It will be different, I'm just not sure exactly where to go with it yet. I do plan on starting it soon, probably the beginning of next month I should have the first chapter of Part 3. (It will be a multi-chapter like the first.)  
> This was difficult to write because I love Loki, but I'm sick of Marvel screwing him over.  
> So, I hope I did this some justice.  
> I also had NO idea what the place was called where The Other dwells so I called it the Unknown. Seemed fitting. I think?


End file.
